Work in Progress, August 2011

As I mentioned before, I'm in the beginning stages of a new series of work connecting handicraft with language, particularly using visual constructions as an actual language or code in themselves.

One piece in the works is a series of one-page, map-fold copper books. Each book is tarnished with a different quilt block pattern and will have a used sandpaper cover. Industrial material meets book arts meets textiles.

Taping the first few blocks to prepare them for tarnishing

Tarnishing the copper

So far I have 40-some tarnished. Since the fold pattern naturally divides each page into quarters, I'm only using 4x4 quilt patterns, and I would like the final result, if I were to display them in a grid, to also be divisible by 4. Which means I'm either making 64 of these suckers (8x8 grid) or 144 (12x12). 144 would fit nicely with my numerological inclinations, so that's what I'm leaning toward, but it will take a while to get there. Fortunately, "5500 Quilt Block Designs," which I am using as a reference, has ample patterns to choose from.

The pages. The surface will be antiqued and then each page will be folded into a small book form.

The language possibilities still seem wide open, but I'm leaning toward using the names of the blocks (since each one is different) to construct a story or poem that would accompany the artwork as an over-sized caption of sorts. Working title: "Impossible Narrative"